Prosodic challenges faced by English speakers reading Mandarin

This study compares the prosodic characteristics of L2-Mandarin as spoken by L1-English speakers using L1-Mandarin utterances. The acoustic correlates examined include individual tonal realizations, interactions of tones in sequence, durational features and intensity envelopes. L2-Mandarin users realize the contour tones RISE and FALL with both rising and falling pitch, and produce the second tone of disyllabic words with more varied pitch. L2-users employ larger vowel durations, syllable durations and larger variation over vowel intervals in sequential pairs than L1-Mandarin users. Both user groups show similar intensity envelopes. Implications of this study include tailoring language training programs that counterbalance L1 influences

Acoustic Analysis of the Tones in the Shantou Dialect

This paper mainly analyzes the different tones in the Shantou dialect. The Shantou dialect is known as one of the branches of the Chaoshan dialect which is a sub-group of the southern Min. Compared to other sub-group southern Min dialects, one of the distinguishing tonal characteristics of the Shantou dialect is that it has eight tones while the others have seven. Common views have explained that the eight tones in the Shantou dialect are the result of the four Middle Chinese tones further splitting into the upper register and the lower register. Thus, the Shantou dialect has its unique position in the study of the tonal development of Chinese. In order to better understand this unique tonal phenomenon, with references to the four Middle Chinese tonal categories, the tonal system in the Shantou dialect is acoustically examined. With an acoustic tonal experiment, this study aims to discuss three questions. First, what are the Shantou dialect’s tonal values? Second, what is the relation between its tones and the four Middle Chinese tones? Third, what is the tonal value difference between auditory perception and objective analysis? Based on the measurement of fundamental frequency of speeches from the selected native Shantou dialect speakers by Praat, objectively analyzed tonal values are provided. In comparison with an auditory perception of tonal value in previous studies, differences between the current study and previous research will be discussed. Moreover, I point out that the tonal system in the Shantou dialect is not spoken with as much symmetrical alignment as compared to the four Middle Chinese tones divided into the upper register and the lower register. This paper contains five main parts. The first chapter gives a detailed introduction of the Shantou dialect. Second, the methodology that is used in this study is illustrated. Specifically, it includes how the data was collected and processed using a software program called Praat. Next, the third chapter gives an analysis on each tone’s value, including illustration on its fundamental frequency and tonal contour. Fourth, previous studies and current study on the tonal system in the Shantou dialect are further discussed. Last, a brief conclusion is listed

Phonological abstraction in processing lexical-tone variation: Evidence from a learning paradigm

There is a growing consensus that the mental lexicon contains both abstract and word-specific acoustic information. To investigate their relative importance for word recognition, we tested to what extent perceptual learning is word specific or generalizable to other words. In an exposure phase, participants were divided into two groups; each group was semantically biased to interpret an ambiguous Mandarin tone contour as either tone1 or tone2. In a subsequent test phase, the perception of ambiguous contours was dependent on the exposure phase: Participants who heard ambiguous contours as tone1 during exposure were more likely to perceive ambiguous contours as tone1 than participants who heard ambiguous contours as tone2 during exposure. This learning effect was only slightly larger for previously encountered than for not previously encountered words. The results speak for an architecture with prelexical analysis of phonological categories to achieve both lexical access and episodic storage of exemplars

Long-term average spectral characteristics of Cantonese alaryngeal speech

Objective: In Hong Kong, esophageal (SE), tracheoesophageal (TE), electrolaryngeal (EL), and pneumatic artificial laryngeal (PA) speech are commonly used by laryngectomees as a means to regain verbal communication after total laryngectomy. While SE and TE speech has been studied to some extent, little is known regarding the EL and PA sound quality. The present study examined the sound quality associated with SE, TE, EL, and PA speech, and compared with that associated with laryngeal (NL) speech by using long-term average speech spectra (LTAS). Methods: Continuous speech samples of reading a 136-word passage were obtained from NL, SE, TE, EL, and PA speakers of Cantonese. The alaryngeal speakers were all superior speakers selected from the New Voice Club of Hong Kong, which is a self-help organization for the laryngectomees in Hong Kong. TE speakers were fitted with Provox valve, and EL speakers used Servox-type electrolarynx. Speech samples were digitized at 20 kHz and 16 bits/sample by using Praat, based on which LTAS contours were developed. First spectral peak (FSP), mean spectral energy (MSE), and spectral tilt (ST) derived from the LTAS contours associated with different speaker groups were compared. Results: Data revealed all speakers generally exhibited similar LTA contours. However, PA speakers exhibited the lowest average FSP value and the greatest average MSE value. NL phonation was associated with a significantly greater ST value than alaryngeal speech of Cantonese. Conclusion: The differences in FSP, MSE, and ST values in different speaker groups may be related to the different sound sources being used by the laryngectomees, and the difference in the way the sound source is coupled with the vocal tract system. © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Prosodic Focus Within and Across Languages

The fact that purely prosodic marking of focus may be weaker in some languages than in others, and that it varies in certain circumstances even within a single language, has not been commonly recognized. Therefore, this dissertation investigated whether and how purely prosodic marking of focus varies within and across languages. We conducted production and perception experiments using a paradigm of 10-digit phone-number strings in which the same material and discourse contexts were used in different languages. The results demonstrated that prosodic marking of focus varied across languages. Speakers of American English, Mandarin Chinese, and Standard French clearly modulated duration, pitch, and intensity to indicate the position of corrective focus. Listeners of these languages recognized the focus position with high accuracy. Conversely, speakers of Seoul Korean, South Kyungsang Korean, Tokyo Japanese, and Suzhou Wu produced a weak and ambiguous modulation by focus, resulting in a poor identification performance. This dissertation also revealed that prosodic marking of focus varied even within a single language. In Mandarin Chinese, a focused low/dipping tone (tone 3) received a relatively poor identification rate compared to other focused tones (about 77% vs. 91%). This lower identification performance was due to the smaller capacity of tone 3 for pitch range expansion and local dissimilatory effects around tone 3 focus. In Seoul Korean, prosodic marking of focus differed based on the tonal contrast (post-lexical low vs. high tones). The identification rate of high tones was twice as high than that of low tones (about 24% vs. 51%), the reason being that low tones had a smaller capacity for pitch range expansion than high tones. All things considered, this dissertation demonstrates that prosodic focus is not always expressed by concomitant increased duration, pitch, and intensity. Accordingly, purely prosodic marking of focus is neither completely universal nor automatic, but rather is expressed through the prosodic structure of each language. Since the striking difference in focus-marking success does not seem to be determined by any previously-described typological feature, this must be regarded as an indicator of a new typological dimension, or as a function of a new typological space

Neutral Tone in Mandarin: Representation and Interaction with Utterance-level Prosody

In Standard Mandarin, there are syllables that do not carry any of the four citation tones (T1: High-level tone, T2: Mid-rising tone, T3: Low-convex tone and T4: High-falling tone), and they are said to have a neutral tone (NT). These syllables are usually shorter, lighter, prosodically grouped with the preceding CT-bearing syllables. These characteristics of NT have led to a prevailing view that it has no underlying phonological specification. However, research has focused more on how the surface pitch variations of NT are realized rather than the underlying representation of NT. In contrast, morphological, sociolinguistic and diachronic work on NT has suggested that NT may not be a homogeneous entity. In this thesis, I provide acoustic and psycholinguistic evidence that there are two types of NT, Intrinsic NT and Derived NT. Intrinsic NT refers to morphemes that were lexicalized as tone-deleted, unstressed syllables even before the formation of the four CTs of modern Mandarin. Derived NT refers to morphemes derived from the CTs via stress-related tone-deletion. In Part A, the phonological representation of Intrinsic and Derived NT is explored through two production and two processing experiments. The results show that Intrinsic NT is likely to have an underspecified tonal target while Derived NTs are underlyingly CTs. In addition, both subtypes of NT are metrically light, unlike heavy CTs. Part B explores the interaction between NTs and utterance-level prosody in production and perception experiments. NT-bearing syllables have lengthening patterns under focus similar to CT-bearing syllables, in contrast to the realization of unstressed syllables in English. In perception, the identification of intonation (Statement vs. Question) on Intrinsic NT was similar to Derived NT. When compared to CTs, the NTs elicit less bias towards question than T4, and higher accuracy than T2, which may result from their simpler surface representations.CHINA Scholarship COUNCIL (CSC) and Cambridge Trus